Hedging in Academic Discourse

Abstract

Hedging has become a topic of interest among discourse-oriented linguists. The paper will discuss ways in which the term “hedge” has been understood and defined in the literature within the academic writing discourse. As epistemic devices with significant characteristics, hedges are often seen as features in academic writing practices that may cause problems, being often a serious source of pragmatic failure in written discourse in a foreign language. It is suggested that the appropriate use of hedging, which clearly requires subtlety and awareness of pragmatic competence of written discourse, is utterly important in avoiding “communicative failure” (Thomas, 1983) and allowing authors to find a way of expressing their true voice in a target discourse.

Keywords

• hedging
• academic writing
• foreign language